Washington Sets Debate Aside

WASHINGTON — Friday was one of those rare days when Washington paused to cherish a moment in American history, as it remembered the legacy not only of a president but of a country.

It would be a day unlike any the nation's capital had seen in a generation, a comma in the bulging volumes of debate and dissent that endlessly issue from this city. Instead, Friday was a reminder that Washington is also a living monument to a deeply felt birthright its citizens share, a silent sense that, as former New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo put it, ``We are all in this together.''

As they gathered on this overcast day, the leaders of the last four decades, at Washington's National Cathedral and at the Capitol, there was certainly a sense of sadness at Ronald Reagan's passing. But there was also a subtext, a feeling that the nation was celebrating a life well-lived and a duty well-served.

There had arguably been no step back like this since, perhaps, the days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy 41 years ago. Great statesmen of the recent past, even icons like Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, had lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda since then, and great lives were routinely celebrated at the cathedral.

But there was something about Reagan and his times that turned Washington into a special place Friday to reflect and appreciate what America was and is.

``We're all longing today for whatever there was that made us comfortable during the Reagan years,'' said former Commerce Secretary Barbara Franklin. ``We know that's not going to happen soon; the world is a different place. But we want that comfort.''

It's not just the world that seems out of control today, said historian Robert Dallek.

``The last presidential election was so contentious, and we're in the middle of such an ugly political season,'' he said. ``Of course the day is full of exaggeration and hagiography, but it also serves an important psychological purpose. It reminds us of the unity in this country.''

That undercurrent of national purpose, indeed of shared purpose among civilized nations, was unmistakable.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, once the leader of Reagan's ``evil empire,'' sat in the same row as leaders of the 1980s free world. Jimmy Carter, whose presidency Reagan vanquished, sat near Gerald Ford, whose own presidency was ended by Carter.

Instead of lofty rhetoric, George H.W. Bush, Reagan's vice president before he became president, remembered his boss like a brother, recalling how Reagan described his meeting with South African Bishop Desmond Tutu: ``So-so.''

``It was typical,'' Bush said Friday. ``It was wonderful.''

The day began as thousands were still waiting around the Capitol grounds' perimeter, hemmed in by aluminum fences some four city blocks from the building. Many had camped out overnight, but when the lines to view the casket were cut off shortly after 7 a.m., they stayed to watch the casket come outside for its journey to the cathedral.

Inside the Rotunda, Nancy Reagan, looking ashen and wan, came for one last look before military pallbearers carried the casket to the hearse. She leaned over, spoke quietly to her late husband and gently smoothed the flag.

Outside, a drizzle turned into a steady light rain as the procession moved deliberately to the motorcade and proceeded through the eerily quiet avenues lined with ordinary people waiting to witness history.

Waiting at the cathedral was an extraordinary snapshot of a generation of world leaders. Cuomo thought of all those 1980s figures and offered a quick evaluation of why Reagan commanded such respect: He was a giant, said the man whom once considered Reagan's most articulate foe, someone with the ability to rise above the daily noise of the commentators and the critics.

``He was all optimism and common sense,'' Cuomo said. ``Was he really those things? Ask God. But that's what he looked and sounded like to the American people.''

But if image alone were the standard by which presidents are judged, this day would not have been so special. Reagan resonated because he was very much the embodiment of the 20th-century American dream. In a country without aristocracies or noblesse oblige, Reagan reminded how luck and pluck mattered.

``He was quintessentially the Midwesterner. You dig a hole and plant the bush,'' said Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-5th District, herself a Chicago native. You don't stand around arguing about the best way to plant it, she explained: You do it, you smile, you thank and appreciate the people who helped you.

Reagan grew up 90 miles from Chicago, in a small town, Dixon, Ill. President Bush, in his eulogy, neatly summed up that voyage through the American century -- lifeguard to sports announcer during the Depression, then west to pursue the ultimate American dream. Reagan found it in the movies, endured some personal and professional setbacks and rebounded to lead California and then the country.